As the pandemic continues to die down, more and more Americans are choosing not to get vaccinated. What does this mean?
From The Epoch Times. About half of the U.S. adult population say they don’t need the latest COVID-19 booster while just under a quarter have already taken the jab, according to a recent poll. The findings come despite a Biden administration push to vaccinate during the holiday season.
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According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) COVID-19 Monitor poll, only 22 percent of adults have gotten the new bivalent booster since it first became available in September. Another 16 percent claim that they plan to get it “as soon as possible.”
These numbers vary slightly from those that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out on Dec. 8, which showed that only 16.3 percent of eligible adults have received the updated booster.
The CDC classifies as “fully vaccinated” those individuals who completed the COVID-19 monovalent series of the original SARS-CoV-2 strain; the classification does not require a booster. …
The updated bivalent booster, created by both Pfizer and Moderna, specifically targets the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, but according to an AABC News report, it has also been shown “to protect well against newer circulating offshoots such as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, making up nearly 70 percent of new cases.”
Among people who are fully vaccinated, KFF found that 44 percent felt that they don’t need the updated booster. Of those, 37 percent don’t think the booster’s reputed benefit is worth it, while 36 percent said that they were “too busy” to get one. Twenty-three percent cited bad side effects with previous COVID-19 injections for their hesitancy.
Nine percent said that they definitely won’t be getting a booster at all.
Another reason for people’s lackluster enthusiasm to run out and get boosted is that only 36 percent of poll participants worried that they would get seriously sick from contracting the virus, KFF reported. The 65 and older population, most vulnerable to negative outcomes from COVID-19 infection, showed slightly more apprehension with 43 percent expressing anxiety about potentially getting sick.
The Republican–Democrat Divide
Data coming from the KFF poll showed a significant difference in the way Republicans or Republican-leaning participants viewed a need for the booster as compared to their Democrat counterparts.
Democrats seemed eager to get the booster while Republicans appeared skeptical. In fact, KFF found that Democrats were three times more likely to have already rolled up their sleeves for the shot than Republicans.
Data shows that nearly four out of 10 (or 38 percent) of poll participants who identified as Democrat had already received the booster, with an additional 28 percent having an intention to do so at the soonest opportunity. This contrasts significantly with the 12 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of Republican-leaning Independents who had taken the time to get the shot.
The top reason that Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents gave for deciding against the booster was that they didn’t need it (64 percent) or felt that it wasn’t worth the benefit (61 percent). Among Democrats (or Democratic-leaning Independents) the most common reason cited for not yet doing so was having been too busy (51 percent).
Of those participants who weren’t vaccinated at all or who were only partially vaccinated and, thus, ineligible to get the booster, 9 percent identified as Democrat while 69 percent were either Republican or Republican-leaning Independents. …
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(Excerpt from The Epoch Times. Photo Credit: CDC on Unsplash)